Julian Assange Calls DreamWorks’ WikiLeaks Movie a ‘Geriatric Snoozefest’
Julian Assange has been critical of the upcoming dramatization of his work, "The Fifth Estate," since he read an early draft of the script. Now, as the movie is set to open, he cuts it to ribbons once again.
Julian Assange has been critical of the upcoming dramatization of his work, “The Fifth Estate,” since he read an early draft of the script. Now, as the movie is set to open, he cuts it to ribbons once again.
In a statement released on the official WikiLeaks Twitter feed, Assange writes:
People love the true WikiLeaks story: a small group of dedicated journalists and tech activists who take on corruption and state criminality against the odds. But this film isn’t about that. This is a film by the old media about the new media. Viewers are short-changed. Step one: write WikiLeaks staff out of the story. Where is our primary spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson, three time winner of journalist of the year, who we deployed to war-torn Iraq? Where is our courageous journalist Sarah Harrison who spent 39 days protecting Edward Snowden in a Moscow airport – and is now in effective exile from the UK? Step two: write the old media into the story. Instead of the exciting true story, we get a film about a bland German IT worker who wasn’t even there and a fabricated fight over redactions with the old newspapers and the State Department saving the day. The result is a geriatric snoozefest that only the US government could love.
As The Verge points out, “With the film getting mixed early reviews, its most interesting facet may be the weird conversation that’s grown up around it — Assange’s eloquent letter easily outdoes any monologue he’s given in the film.” Assange apparently asked the actor who portrays him, Benedict Cumberbatch, to “reconsider your involvement in this enterprise.” “Feature films are the most powerful and insidious shapers of public perception, because they fly under the radar of conscious exclusion,” Assange explained. “As justification it will claim to be fiction, but it is not fiction. It is distorted truth about living people doing battle with titanic opponents. It is a work of political opportunism, influence, revenge and, above all, cowardice.”
— Posted by Peter Z. Scheer
Your support matters…Independent journalism is under threat and overshadowed by heavily funded mainstream media.
You can help level the playing field. Become a member.
Your tax-deductible contribution keeps us digging beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that unearths what's really happening- without compromise.
Give today to support our courageous, independent journalists.
The British actor gave many impassioned speeches about the Syrian refugee crisis at the end of his performances as Hamlet in London, but one speech differed in a very specific way.
Julian Assange has taken strong objection to "The Fifth Estate," Hollywood's take on WikiLeaks' adventures in journalism. In a new interview, the director of the film, Bill Condon, says the WikiLeaks publisher "just flat-out makes things up."
After reading Benedict Cumberbatch's full, unedited remarks on the punishment of Chelsea Manning and government destruction of privacy, published Monday at The Guardian, I believe his meanings as originally reported remain intact.
The award-winning director and champion of left-wing causes has defended the WikiLeaks founder against two forthcoming films after revealing that he met Assange at his de facto prison in London's Ecuadorean Embassy last week.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.